Treasurer taunted with cruel nickname after he struggled to open a bottle of water

Josh Frydenberg has been taunted by a cruel nickname after he was captured on video in a struggle we all know too well.

It’s the cruel nickname that Labor has long used to try and paint Treasurer Josh Frydenberg as useless at his job.

But the “butterfingers” jibe has finally got some footage to match the schoolyard taunt after he struggled to open a bottle of water in question time.

The Treasurer’s agonising attempts to prise open the top of the taxpayer-funded bottled water in Parliament House was captured in excruciating detail by the parliamentary cameras.

After admitting defeat, he handed the bottle to Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce who offered to get the job done – with some difficulty.

The full horror of his inability to open a bottle of water was then placed on social media by the opposition treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers with the hashtag #butterfingers.

Josh Frydenberg struggles to open a bottle of water.

#Butterfingers#auspol#qtpic.twitter.com/cfz6K9vUhl

— Jim Chalmers MP (@JEChalmers) November 24, 2021

Josh Frydenberg gave at least $13b to businesses which didn’t need JobKeeper while many who still need support are still being ignored and left in the lurch. JobKeeper is a good idea badly bungled by the Butterfingers of Australian politics. #auspol

— Jim Chalmers MP (@JEChalmers) August 31, 2021

It’s a jibe that Dr Chalmers has enthusiastically deployed in the past.

“Paul Keating famously described one of Frydenberg’s predecessors in Kooyong as a soufflé which wouldn’t rise twice,’’ he said.

“The current Member for that blue ribbon Melbourne seat could only dream of being described as something as substantial as a soufflé.

“He’s more like whipped cream in a spray can – all noise and fizz but quickly melting away when heat is applied.

“It says so much about the Morrison Government that Gucci and Louis Vuitton pocketed JobKeeper payments they didn’t need because their profits were going up, while working families and small businesses in Western Sydney go without.

“The problem was that the parliament delegated the implementation of the program entirely to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg – the butterfingers of Australian politics.”